Krzysztof Penderecki Dies: Modernist Composer’s Work Used In ‘The Exorcist’ And ‘The Shining’ Was 86
Krzysztof Penderecki, a Polish composer and conductor whose modernist works were on soundtracks for The Exorcist and The Shining, died Sunday at his home in Krakow. He was 86 and his death was confirmed by Andrzej Giza, the director of the Ludwig van Beethoven Association, founded by Penderecki’s wife, Elzbieta.
Penderecki was an avant-garde composer and prolific in his output. His resume includes eight symphonies, four operas, a requiem, and several concertos.
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The violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich won Grammy Awards for their recordings of the Penderecki concertos in 1999 and 1988, respectively.
His compositions Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima in 1960, Polymorphia in 1961 and the St. Luke Passion in 1966 are considered among his greatest works.
Film directors...
Penderecki was an avant-garde composer and prolific in his output. His resume includes eight symphonies, four operas, a requiem, and several concertos.
More from DeadlineAlan Merrill Dies Of Coronavirus: 'I Love Rock 'N' Roll' Songwriter Was 69David Schramm Dies: 'Wings' Star And Stage Actor Was 73Jim Houston Dies: Engineer And Two-Time Oscar Winner Was 61
The violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich won Grammy Awards for their recordings of the Penderecki concertos in 1999 and 1988, respectively.
His compositions Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima in 1960, Polymorphia in 1961 and the St. Luke Passion in 1966 are considered among his greatest works.
Film directors...
- 3/29/2020
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Many consider Dmitri Shostakovich the greatest composer of the 20th century. Born September 25, 1906, he might not have lived past his teens if he hadn't been talented. During the famines of the Revolutionary period in Russia, Alexander Glazunov, director of the Petrograd (later Leningrad) Conservatory, arranged for the poor and malnourished Shostakovich's food ration to be increased. Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1, his graduation exercise for Maximilian Steinberg's composition course at the Conservatory, was completed in 1925 at age 19 and was an immediate success worldwide. He was The Party's poster boy; his Second and Third Symphonies unabashedly subtitled, respectively, "To October". (celebrating the Revolution) and "The First of May". (International Workers' Day).
His highly emotional harmonic language is simultaneously tough yet communicative, but his expansion of Mahlerian symphonic structure, dissonances, sardonic irony, and dark moods eventually clashed with the conservative edicts of Communist Party officials. In 1936 he was viciously denounced by Pravda...
His highly emotional harmonic language is simultaneously tough yet communicative, but his expansion of Mahlerian symphonic structure, dissonances, sardonic irony, and dark moods eventually clashed with the conservative edicts of Communist Party officials. In 1936 he was viciously denounced by Pravda...
- 9/26/2016
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
In the wake of the terrible attacks in Paris, I found myself listening to a lot of French music and thinking about the Leonard Bernstein quote going around on Facebook: "This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before." This list came to seem like my natural response. A very small response, I know. This list is chronological and leaves off people I should probably include. The forty [note: now forty-one] composers listed below are merely a start.
Léonin Aka Leoninus (c.1135-c.1201)
The Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris in the 1100s was a major musical center, and Léonin (the first named composer from whom we have notated polyphonic music) was a crucial figure for defining the liturgical use of organum, the first polyphony. Earlier organum was fairly simple, involving parallel intervals and later contrary motion, but the mid-12th century brought...
Léonin Aka Leoninus (c.1135-c.1201)
The Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris in the 1100s was a major musical center, and Léonin (the first named composer from whom we have notated polyphonic music) was a crucial figure for defining the liturgical use of organum, the first polyphony. Earlier organum was fairly simple, involving parallel intervals and later contrary motion, but the mid-12th century brought...
- 11/15/2015
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) never left Germany but became internationally respected by his peers during his lifetime and a symbol of pure musicianship for future generations. A virtuoso organist, harpsichordist, and violinist/violist who may have also played lute, as a composer his mastery of counterpoint and fugal writing remain unmatched, yet he was also open to the influences of contemporary Italian and French composers.
Born into a highly musical family in Eisenach, Germany, Bach became organist at the Neukirche in Arnstadt in 1703 at the age of 18. His first major appointment was as court organist to Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar, in 1708; six years later the Duke made him Concertmaster. In 1717 Bach became Kapellmeister and music director to the music-loving Prince Leopold of Anhalt in Cöthen, where Bach wrote much of his greatest secular music. Bach's duties switched to writing choral and organ music for use in church services...
Born into a highly musical family in Eisenach, Germany, Bach became organist at the Neukirche in Arnstadt in 1703 at the age of 18. His first major appointment was as court organist to Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar, in 1708; six years later the Duke made him Concertmaster. In 1717 Bach became Kapellmeister and music director to the music-loving Prince Leopold of Anhalt in Cöthen, where Bach wrote much of his greatest secular music. Bach's duties switched to writing choral and organ music for use in church services...
- 3/21/2015
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Controversial composer Alfred Schnittke was born November 24, 1934 in the Soviet Union's Volga Republic, an ethnic German enclave. In his mid-thirties he pioneered a broadly eclectic style of composing that drew on many classical styles (even sometimes quoting familiar Beethoven or Bach works, among others) as well as the occasional foray into jazz and pop. By 1972 his experimentalism had earned the disapproval of the Soviet Composers Union (the Soviets also weren't enamored of his occasional expressions of religion, for that matter), but a number of esteemed musicians who had left Russia to live in the West supported his work and brought him an international reputation. His work was basically pessimistic in outlook, but its emotional impact, and the accessibility of some of the styles he drew on, nonetheless seduced many listeners.
The contradictions in Schnittke's style are laid out in his liner notes to the Bis recording of his Symphony No.
The contradictions in Schnittke's style are laid out in his liner notes to the Bis recording of his Symphony No.
- 11/24/2014
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
A classicist using Romantic harmonies, Johannes Brahms (1833-97) was hailed at age 20 by Robert Schumann in a famous article entitled "New Paths." Yet by the time Brahms wrote his mature works, his music was thought of as a conservative compared to the daring harmonies and revolutionary dramatic theories of Richard Wagner. But in the next century, Arnold Schoenberg's 1947 essay titled "Brahms the Progressive" praised Brahms's bold modulations (as daring as Wagner's most tonally ambiguous chords), asymmetrical forms, and mastery of imaginative variation and development of thematic material.
The son of a bassist in the Hamburg Philharmonic Society, Brahms was an excellent pianist who was supporting himself by his mid-teens. His first two published works were his Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2, and throughout his career he penned much fine music for that instrument, not only solo (including the later Piano Sonata No. 3) and duo but also his landmark Piano Concertos Nos.
The son of a bassist in the Hamburg Philharmonic Society, Brahms was an excellent pianist who was supporting himself by his mid-teens. His first two published works were his Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2, and throughout his career he penned much fine music for that instrument, not only solo (including the later Piano Sonata No. 3) and duo but also his landmark Piano Concertos Nos.
- 5/8/2014
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Deanna Durbin ‘saves’ Universal (photo: Deanna Durbin in Three Smart Girls) [See previous post: "Deanna Durbin: Remembering One of Hollywood's Top Stars."] During the Great Depression most Hollywood studios were in dire financial straits, until, as the story goes, one (or more) lucky star(s) made them once again solvent. Mae West is credited for "saving" Paramount; Shirley Temple "saved" Fox; the Busby Berkeley, Ruby Keeler, and Dick Powell combo "saved" Warner Bros.; and the curious mix of King Kong, Fred Astaire, and Ginger Rogers "saved" Rko. So, did Deanna Durbin truly save Universal from bankruptcy? Well, Charles Rogers’ investment company came to the financial rescue of Universal in 1936, but the success of Durbin’s movies surely helped the new management get the studio back on its feet. For instance, according to author David Shipman, Three Smart Girls cost $300,000 — its budget doubled after studio bosses realized they had a hit in their hands — and earned Universal a hefty $2m. (An unspecified...
- 5/4/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Striking Russian opera singer and wife of Mstislav Rostropovich, she was made an 'unperson' during the Soviet era
The soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, who has died aged 86, coloured her performances of opera, and especially of Russian song, so beautifully that full comprehension was not essential for enjoyment. Of course, once you did understand the words, you realised how much meaning she brought to them.
Possessed of a striking physical presence with lustrous dark hair, she was such a natural actor that she became the star of her generation at the Bolshoi opera company in Moscow, forging artistic relationships with the stage director Boris Pokrovsky and the conductor Alexander Melik-Pashaev. And – appropriately for a performer who sang with all the skill of an instrumentalist – for more than half a century she was married to Mstislav Rostropovich, not just a great cellist, but also a considerable conductor and pianist.
Their marriage – her third...
The soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, who has died aged 86, coloured her performances of opera, and especially of Russian song, so beautifully that full comprehension was not essential for enjoyment. Of course, once you did understand the words, you realised how much meaning she brought to them.
Possessed of a striking physical presence with lustrous dark hair, she was such a natural actor that she became the star of her generation at the Bolshoi opera company in Moscow, forging artistic relationships with the stage director Boris Pokrovsky and the conductor Alexander Melik-Pashaev. And – appropriately for a performer who sang with all the skill of an instrumentalist – for more than half a century she was married to Mstislav Rostropovich, not just a great cellist, but also a considerable conductor and pianist.
Their marriage – her third...
- 12/11/2012
- by Tully Potter
- The Guardian - Film News
News.
The Locarno Film Festival announced its 2013 edition will feature a complete retrospective of the films of George Cukor. They also announced their lineup of programmers, which features Cinema Scope editor/publisher Mark Peranson as the head of programming. An archive of Andrei Tarkovsky's personal photographs, letters and other items are going up for auction. According to The Guardian:
"The archive is being sold by Olga Surkova, who was Tarkovsky's pupil, amanuensis and friend as well as co-author of the book Sculpting in Time, in which the director sets out his theories on cinema....In the sale are notebooks with shot-by-shot analysis of his films; printed scripts for films, containing significant differences to the final versions; and a collection of 32 audio tapes and 13 MiniDiscs from his final years on which he talks about his films and cinema.
There are photo albums of Tarkovsky and his family on holiday in places...
The Locarno Film Festival announced its 2013 edition will feature a complete retrospective of the films of George Cukor. They also announced their lineup of programmers, which features Cinema Scope editor/publisher Mark Peranson as the head of programming. An archive of Andrei Tarkovsky's personal photographs, letters and other items are going up for auction. According to The Guardian:
"The archive is being sold by Olga Surkova, who was Tarkovsky's pupil, amanuensis and friend as well as co-author of the book Sculpting in Time, in which the director sets out his theories on cinema....In the sale are notebooks with shot-by-shot analysis of his films; printed scripts for films, containing significant differences to the final versions; and a collection of 32 audio tapes and 13 MiniDiscs from his final years on which he talks about his films and cinema.
There are photo albums of Tarkovsky and his family on holiday in places...
- 11/7/2012
- by Adam Cook
- MUBI
Collection of Russian film-maker's letters, audio tapes and photographs expected to fetch up to £100,000 at Sotheby's
An extensive archive of letters, book drafts, audio tapes and photographs relating to the film director Andrei Tarkovsky is to appear at auction in London.
Sotheby's has announced it is to sell an archive of one of the most revered figures in cinema, a man whom Ingmar Bergman called "the greatest … the one who invented a new language of film."
Tarkovsky's films, always intellectually stimulating and usually long and slow-moving, routinely come top or very high in film lists. The Guardian named his 205-minute Andrei Rublev as the best arthouse film of all time, and the BFI's once-a-decade greatest film poll put three Tarkovsky creations in the top 30 – Mirror at 19, Andrei Rublev at 26 and Stalker at 29. Mirror came ninth in a parallel BFI list decided by 358 directors.
Sotheby's head of books and manuscripts, Stephen Roe,...
An extensive archive of letters, book drafts, audio tapes and photographs relating to the film director Andrei Tarkovsky is to appear at auction in London.
Sotheby's has announced it is to sell an archive of one of the most revered figures in cinema, a man whom Ingmar Bergman called "the greatest … the one who invented a new language of film."
Tarkovsky's films, always intellectually stimulating and usually long and slow-moving, routinely come top or very high in film lists. The Guardian named his 205-minute Andrei Rublev as the best arthouse film of all time, and the BFI's once-a-decade greatest film poll put three Tarkovsky creations in the top 30 – Mirror at 19, Andrei Rublev at 26 and Stalker at 29. Mirror came ninth in a parallel BFI list decided by 358 directors.
Sotheby's head of books and manuscripts, Stephen Roe,...
- 11/7/2012
- by Mark Brown
- The Guardian - Film News
Born August 22, 1862 in St.-Germaine-en-Laye, France, Claude-Achille Debussy was a child prodigy pianist who was admitted to the Paris Conservatory at age 10. Now generally considered to have been the greatest French composer, Debussy is proof that great art can come from terrible human beings. He was supremely self-centered and selfish. Two women -- one his wife -- attempted to kill themselves after he ended his relationships with them in cruelly casual fashion; his behavior was so beyond acceptable norms, even by bohemian French standards, that many of his friends turned their backs on him. In the midst of his greatest personal controversy, when he'd left his wife for a married woman and moved with the latter to England for awhile after to escape the constant recriminations, he wrote his biggest masterpiece, La Mer.
But, of course, there's nothing the French enjoy more than a controversy. Debussy's music was controversial as well.
But, of course, there's nothing the French enjoy more than a controversy. Debussy's music was controversial as well.
- 8/16/2012
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Andrzej Żuławski does not like the title of the first retrospective of his work in the Us. Hysterical Excess: Discovering Andrzej Żuławski opens tommorrow and runs through March 20 at New York's BAMcinématek. At the top of his piece for the New York Times, J Hoberman allows the director to explain his objection and then suggests himself that the "word to best describe the Żuławski oeuvre might be 'awful' in its root sense of inspiring dread. Exuding charm and urbanity on the phone, Mr Żuławski is nonetheless an auteur to be approached with trepidation. His movies are seldom more than a step from some flaming abyss, with his actors (and audience) trembling on the edge. Typically shot with a frenzied, often subjective moving camera in saturated colors that have the over-bright feel of a chemically induced hallucination, these can be hard to watch and harder to forget."
Bam's presenting all 12 features...
Bam's presenting all 12 features...
- 3/9/2012
- MUBI
He is the great Russian director who once shot a whole film in a single take. Aleksandr Sokurov talks to Steve Rose about Soviet spies, fallen dictators – and how he got Putin to fund his latest work
At the end of a challenging conversation that, conducted via a translator, strains my intellectual faculties to their limit but barely flexes his, Aleksandr Sokurov makes an astounding statement. "I'm a very literary person, not so much a cinematographic person. I don't really like cinema very much."
Pardon? He doesn't like cinema very much? That's like hearing David Attenborough say he's never really liked animals. Here is a man who was persecuted by the communists for his films; the man who gave us a miraculous feature conducted in one single, unbroken shot, 2002's Russian Ark; the man who is the custodian of Russia's great cinematic heritage. What would he have done if he did like cinema?...
At the end of a challenging conversation that, conducted via a translator, strains my intellectual faculties to their limit but barely flexes his, Aleksandr Sokurov makes an astounding statement. "I'm a very literary person, not so much a cinematographic person. I don't really like cinema very much."
Pardon? He doesn't like cinema very much? That's like hearing David Attenborough say he's never really liked animals. Here is a man who was persecuted by the communists for his films; the man who gave us a miraculous feature conducted in one single, unbroken shot, 2002's Russian Ark; the man who is the custodian of Russia's great cinematic heritage. What would he have done if he did like cinema?...
- 11/15/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
The Culture Show | Rostropovich – The Genius Of The Cello | Autumnwatch 2011 | Criminal Minds | A League Of Their Own | Chris Addison: My Funniest Year
The Culture Show
7pm, BBC2
Another week, another eclectic collection of reports from the arts show, which this week visits Glasgow. Top of the bill is host Andrew Graham-Dixon interviewing Grayson Perry, who's lately curated an installation of new works mixed up with objects drawn from the British Museum collection. Mark Kermode discusses We Need To Talk About Kevin with its director Lynne Ramsay, Simon Armitage celebrates National Poetry Day, and critic Michael Collins considers representations of working-class characters in the theatre. Plus, choreographer Akram Khan and the work of artist Gerhard Richter. Jonathan Wright
Rostropovich – The Genius Of The Cello
7.30pm, BBC4
The cello is the closest orchestral instrument to the human voice in its range of expression. It has achieved a pre-eminence in the classical repertoire,...
The Culture Show
7pm, BBC2
Another week, another eclectic collection of reports from the arts show, which this week visits Glasgow. Top of the bill is host Andrew Graham-Dixon interviewing Grayson Perry, who's lately curated an installation of new works mixed up with objects drawn from the British Museum collection. Mark Kermode discusses We Need To Talk About Kevin with its director Lynne Ramsay, Simon Armitage celebrates National Poetry Day, and critic Michael Collins considers representations of working-class characters in the theatre. Plus, choreographer Akram Khan and the work of artist Gerhard Richter. Jonathan Wright
Rostropovich – The Genius Of The Cello
7.30pm, BBC4
The cello is the closest orchestral instrument to the human voice in its range of expression. It has achieved a pre-eminence in the classical repertoire,...
- 10/7/2011
- by Jonathan Wright, David Stubbs, John Robinson, Martin Skegg
- The Guardian - Film News
Washington — The good times never seemed so good for Neil Diamond.
Known for his songs that have become anthems at ballparks and bars, Diamond was chosen Wednesday to receive the Kennedy Center Honors this year along with some of the biggest names from Broadway, jazz, classical music and Hollywood.
Diamond will be honored with Broadway singer Barbara Cook, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, saxophonist Sonny Rollins and actress Meryl Streep for their contributions to American culture through the arts. President Barack Obama will salute the artists and others will perform in their honor at a ceremony at the Kennedy Center on Dec. 4. CBS will broadcast the show Dec. 27.
Diamond said he was "flying way above sea level" when he heard about the honor.
"I've watched, and I've seen, and I've even dreamed that someday that would happen to me," he told The Associated Press. "But I never really believed that it would.
Known for his songs that have become anthems at ballparks and bars, Diamond was chosen Wednesday to receive the Kennedy Center Honors this year along with some of the biggest names from Broadway, jazz, classical music and Hollywood.
Diamond will be honored with Broadway singer Barbara Cook, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, saxophonist Sonny Rollins and actress Meryl Streep for their contributions to American culture through the arts. President Barack Obama will salute the artists and others will perform in their honor at a ceremony at the Kennedy Center on Dec. 4. CBS will broadcast the show Dec. 27.
Diamond said he was "flying way above sea level" when he heard about the honor.
"I've watched, and I've seen, and I've even dreamed that someday that would happen to me," he told The Associated Press. "But I never really believed that it would.
- 9/7/2011
- by AP
- Huffington Post
The Kennedy Center Honors have been handed out since 1978. Recipients hail from various branches of the American performance art world — including film, stage, music, and dance — even though performers more closely associated with British show business have managed to sneak in every now and then, e.g., Paul McCartney, Roger Daltrey, Elton John, Pete Townshend. Since recipients are supposed to attend the Washington, D.C., ceremony in order to take home their Kennedy awards, Doris Day has remained unhonored by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Katharine Hepburn kept putting it off until she finally relented in 1990. (Irene Dunne, see above photo, was one who managed to be honored though absent due to ill health.) Ginger Rogers, for her part, was present at the ceremony, but her films with Fred Astaire weren't — because Astaire's widow, Robyn Astaire, demanded payment for the televised clips. At the time, Kennedy Center Honors...
- 9/7/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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